The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1887-07-13

deserve death for their crimes. What is
wanted is a mode which produces swift,
painless and certain death, and which shall
at the same time impress the popular
mind with the strongest intimida-
tion." Hanging, it is commended,
does not meet any of these conditions;
neither does shooting, poisoning, behead-
ing, nor any other method known to civil
lied nations or savage tribes. At this junct-
ure, when all methods now In vogue have
been discussed and found wanting in the
prime essentials of swiftness, painlessness
and certainty, and as also wanting in in
timidation qualities, electricity is suggested
as filling every requirement. There is no
question about its swiftness; science comes
to the aid of the debaters, and asserts that
death by electricity is painless. because
OF its swiftness, and nothing within
the whole domain of nature kills more
certainly. Says Mf. Benjamin, death
caused by powerful electric current is
substantially the same thing as death by
lightning stroke. 1t is instantaneous and
painless, for no opportunity is afforded for
any sensation to be recognized" The esti-
mate of Professor Helmholtz is that death
by electricity is produced in one-tenth of a
second, but Professor Tyndal considers
that an electric discharge Ia fash of light
ning) occurs in probably o hundred-thou-
sandth part of q second, and in that incon-
ceivably short period does its fatal work.
Here. then, we have a swift, painless and
certain death, and it is suggested with
some show of PROPHECY that death
by electricity, to very large
degree, connects divine providence
with the operation-that is to say, heaven
and earth in the operation are co-workers.
"The practical Details" says Mr.. Bsnja-
min, ''of an electric execution might be
very simple. 1t has been suggested, in
order to insure passage of the current
through the most vital organs to dispose
the terminals of the conductors so that the
discharge might traverse the entire body"
and 1t is said that "even the necessity OF
human interposition to do this last act
could be obvisted by arranging a simple
contact device, controlled by a clock,
which, at the appointed instant, would au-
tomatieally establish the circuit, and thus,
render the last vestige of the executioner's
work thing OF the past" And it is as
serted that in so far as the death penalty is
designed TO exercise deterrent inlH-
ence," mo other mode of inhicting death
could inspire stronger fear"
An effort is to be made in New York to
do away with hanging, and a commission
established by the Legislature of that State
is now examining the subject, and so far
electricity is thought to be an i'm
mense improvement upon the methods
hitherto devised. The old, huge, shape
less repulsive scaffoId would disappear;
the trap, the halter, the cap, the pinion-
ing, the drop, the broken neck or the stran-
gulatIon, the swsying and jerking, all the
horrifying incidents of hanging would be
known no more, and it is believed, as the
death of the condemned would be instan-
taneous and mysterious, its terror would
be indefinitely augmented. In closing his
article, Mr.. Benjamin says: ''If there be
any valid objections to the use OF electricity
for the purposes of execution, it is to be
hoped that the advocates of the rope will
make them public" and adds that "the
only opposing argument which the writer
has encountered, except such as are based
upon mistaken notions as to the
necessity for some painful or sup
posedly ignominious form of death,
was not long since advanced by an elec-
trical journal, which objected on senti-
mental grounds to electricity being thus
discreditably utilized" But since Jehovah
utilities electricity sometimes to kill per-
sons who are not criminals, we fail to see
why the State should hesitate when mon
s'ers Of depravity are to be disposed of.
After all, the ipfic:ion of capital puaish-
ment by electricity is good idea, and
will, we think, grow in public favor.